5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Hearing Aids

With an average of 12%-18% of hearing aids “in the drawer” (not being used), it’s clear that for one reason or another, many people who purchase hearing aids are not realizing the full benefits they may provide. Among the reasons that so many hearing aids get relegated to the drawer is poor overall benefit, poor fit and comfort, and unsatisfactory performance in noise. Luckily, many of these problems can be resolved. Take a few minutes to see if any of the below tips may help you or a loved one get on better with hearing aids.

Follow these 5 tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your hearing aids:

Communicate with your provider. If your aids aren’t fitting right, sounding right, or just seem “off”, don’t hesitate to clearly communicate with your hearing provider. In an attempt to not be a difficult patient, some patients end up settling for less than optimum performance- don’t! Most issues can be resolved with a little patience on behalf of the provider and patient, so clearly communicate your needs and hang in there.

Get your hearing tested annually, and hearing aids reprogrammed annually. Your hearing aids will only work as well as they are programmed to work. When you are first fit with your hearing aids, the scores from your hearing test are input into the software which controls how the hearing aid performs. If those scores don’t stay up to date and reflect your actual hearing loss, the hearing aids may begin to be slightly unmatched to your hearing loss over time, resulting in poorly performing hearing aids.

Ask your provider for firmware updates. As hearing aid technology improves, many manufacturers release firmware upgrades which will improve the performance of existing hearing aids that are currently in use by patients. When you go in to your provider’s office for an appointment, sometimes these updates are automatically installed on your hearing aids when they are hooked up to the computer, but sometimes they aren’t. It doesn’t hurt to ask your provider if there are any available firmware updates for your hearing aids.

Use a hearing aid dehumidifier. Over time, oils, wax, and sweat can build up in an around the most important components of your hearing aids. This will cause hearing aids to distort sound, sound weak, or simply stop working altogether. To ensure that your hearing aids are always performing as they should be, consider investing in a hearing aid dehumidifier, like the Dry & Store. A hearing aid dehumidifier will also help prevent the buildup of harmful bacteria which may irritate your ears.

Wear them as much as possible. Although hearing aids may sometimes sound or feel unusual at first, it’s important to wear them as much as possible to get used to them. Just as we need to exercise our bodies, hard-of-hearing people need to exercise the specific portion of the brain (the auditory cortex) where listening takes place.

Do you have any additional tips? Please be sure to share them below!

If you’d like a free phone consultation with a licensed hearing provider, please feel free to call us at 800-731-6794.

Some food for thought: since noisy situations can be exceptionally uncomfortable, especially to new hearing aid users, consider having a “kill switch” setting on you hearing aids. This can be programmed into many digital hearing aids, and it works like this: set the hearing aid amplification at a very low level for all octave bands. The user can then have to option of selecting the low volume setting quickly for those unexpected situations, such as when a baby starts crying at the next table in a restaurant. I asked my audi to set this up as the “second program” in my new aids.

Another tip is to consider new technology if your hearing aids are more than 4 years old. Hearing aid technology has continued to advance, and sometimes the technology of the past just did not provide the performance we want, especially in noise. New wireless technology in hearing aids allows the hearing aids to work together like one unit, providing better performance in noise and more convenient adjustments. Most hearing aid providers provide trade-in discounts and risk-free trials on new technology, so if your hearing aids are more than 4 years old and just not performing up to your expectations even after they have been adjusted, cleaned and updated, new technology might provide the solution you are looking for.